The fashion industry churns out over 1 billion items of clothing every year, producing 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent at the same time, accounting for 5% of global greenhouse gases. Between 19 we’ve decreased the amount of time we keep our clothes by 50%. Let’s consider all we do know about the environmental impact of fast fashion brands like H&M. They have a webpage entitled ‘HM Conscious Explained’, of which you can see the full text in the image below.īut is all this ‘green’ actually just an indication that we’re being greenwashed by H&M’s marketing department? If you look at the information on H&M’s own website about their conscious collection, it’s somewhat limited.

“As H&M are not giving the consumer precise information about why these clothes are labelled Conscious, we conclude that consumers are being given the impression that these products are more ‘sustainable’ than they actually are.” - Bente Øverli This concern stems from the lack of explanation offered by H&M about exactly how their Conscious clothes are being manufactured: More specifically, the Consumer Authority are concerned that H&M may be unable to back up their claims about the sustainability of their business, and of their H&M Conscious collection in particular. Essentially, if brands mislead their customers in any way, it’s illegal under existing Norwegian law. Their investigation comes under the Marketing Control Act in Norway, Section 2 of which states that marketing cannot contain ‘an incorrect or otherwise misleading representation which is likely to influence the demand for or supply of goods’. Last week Norway’s Forbrukertilsynet (Consumer Authority) revealed that they were investigating fast fashion giant H&M’s sustainability claims. “H&M are not being clear or specific enough in explaining how the clothes in the Conscious collection are more ‘sustainable’ than other products they sell.” - Bente Øverli, Deputy Director of Norway’s Consumer Authority

New controversial h and m ad